World News - Invisible RFID Ink Safe For Cattle And People, Company Says

A startup company developing chipless RFID ink has tested its product on cattle and laboratory rats. Somark Innovations announced this week that it successfully tested biocompatible RFID ink, which can be read through animal hairs. The passive RFID technology could be used to identify and track cows to reduce financial losses from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) scares. Somark, which formed in 2005, is located at the Center for Emerging Technologies in St. Louis. The company is raising Series A equity financing and plans to license the technology to secondary markets, which could include laboratory animals, dogs, cats, prime cuts of meat, and military personnel. ... http://www.techweb.com

Iran's uranium enrichment program appears stalled despite tough talk from the Tehran leadership, leaving intelligence services guessing about why it has not made good on plans to press ahead with activities that the West fears could be used to make nuclear arms, diplomats said Thursday. Outside monitoring of Iran's nuclear endeavors is restricted to International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of declared sites leaving significant blind spots for both the agency and intelligence agencies of member countries trying to come up with the full picture. Still, Tehran's reluctance to crank up activities at its declared enrichment site at Natanz when it seems to have the technical know-how is puzzling the diplomatic and intelligence communities with some saying it was potentially worrisome. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2787489

The CIA cannot reveal "alternative interrogation methods" used on terrorists because doing so would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security by telling enemies how the agency gathers intelligence, the government has told a judge. In a document dated Friday and filed in US district court in Manhattan, the CIA said it cannot reveal more than what President George W Bush said last summer about the detention and questioning of terrorism suspects.The American civil liberties union had asked the court to require the CIA to turn over two Department of Justice memos discussing interrogation methods and a presidential order concerning the CIA's authorisation to set up detention facilities outside the United States....http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=347142&sid=WOR

Nato says as many as 150 Taleban militants have been killed in a battle in eastern Afghanistan. "The insurgents had been observed gathering in Pakistan and had crossed the border prior to launching an attack," Nato said in a statement. It said Pakistan had helped monitor the fighters, who were then hit with artillery and air strikes. The Afghan defence ministry earlier estimated 80 fatalities. There was no independent confirmation of numbers. A Taleban spokesman said those killed were civilians, not militants. However, correspondents say there is very little civilian activity in the area of the attack. The spokesman, Dr Muhammad Hanif, told Associated Press news agency that the figure of 150 Taleban fighters killed was "a complete lie". The battle took place in the Margha hills in Afghanistan's Paktika province, close to the Pakistani border. The BBC news website has learned that at least four bodies of local Wazir tribesmen have been taken to the Miranshah area of ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6250953.stm

Caretaker president Iajuddin Ahmed has announced a state of emergency in Bangladesh after weeks of political crisis over elections due this month. A late night-early morning curfew (2300-0500 local time) is in force. A presidential address is due shortly. Weeks of violence have left more than 40 people dead. A major alliance of parties is boycotting the election because it says it is being rigged. Earlier on Thursday, the UN and EU withdrew support for the disputed vote. Sate television said the curfew affected more than 60 cities and towns across Bangladesh. as well as the capital Dhaka. "The president has declared a state of emergency and a curfew has been imposed daily from 11pm to 5am," it reported....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6252397.stm

Anti-war activists are planning to march on the US prison in Guantanamo Bay to demand its closure. Relatives of some of the 400 prisoners held there will take part in the march, marking the fifth anniversary of the first "war on terror" detentions. The facility was set up at a US base in Cuba after the invasion of Afghanistan, to interrogate "enemy combatants". The treatment of the prisoners and the legal uncertainty about their fate have drawn international condemnation. The protesters include a British former detainee, Asif Iqbal, the mother and brother of a current detainee, Omar Deghayes, and Cindy Sheehan, a well-known American peace activist. Omar Deghayes' mother, Zohra Zewawi, says the pain she feels being so close to her imprisoned son with no chance of seeing him is excruciating. Correspondents say the Cuban authorities are unlikely to allow the demonstrators to get close to the American-controlled area, and ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6250095.stm